“I reject it outright,” Chouhan asserted when his attention was drawn towards a section of the party workers’ demand to field Sadhna Singh.

“I did not push her candidature in any party fora. It is for the BJP election committee to decide the candidate after the announcement of the date for by-polls”, he told Hindustan Times.

Asked if he would like to leave the seat he represented five times for any ‘outsider’, the CM said the seat is not his. The party can field any other candidate, he added.

On Cabinet reshuffle, the CM informed that it would be carried out after the Vidisha and Bada Malehra by-elections. Asked whether he has made efforts to bring back Uma Bharti to the BJP to check division of the pro-Hindutva votes, the Chief Minister said he is merely doing his duty assigned by the party.

“There has been no interaction between me and Uma Bharati since the BJP took action against her”. On his frequent visits to Vidisha, he said his opponents have unnecessary made the visits a big issue. He visited Vidisha only a couple of times recently much the same way he visited other parts of the State, the CM clarified.

Justifying revocation of ban on the government employees’ participation in RSS activities, he said “it was, in fact, a ban on patriotism”.

Admitting “differences of opinion” with Governor Balram Jakhar, the Chief Minister said it is not unusual in a democratic set-up. “ We have, otherwise, good relations,” he added.

He said a committee under the Governor would look into the administrative reforms. The government would take its stand later.

On removal of DGP Swaraj Puri, he said the decision was taken in view of the administrative requirement. When asked if he was kept in the dark about the FIR against Puri, his reply was that the government does not believe in interference in the administration’s day-to-day functioning.

He termed as baseless the reports that senior BJP leaders gave him dressing down on the Ujjain issue in Dehradun. On his controversial statement about the Ujjain incident, Chouhan reiterated that he had strongly condemned the incident and promised that the culprits would be brought to book. “But only a part of my statement was flashed and misinterpreted. There was no mention of my condemning the incident,” he lamented.